The Light on Beacon Hill
by melinda08
Summary: Alternate ending to I'll be seeing you- the one with the infamous Sam and Diane break-up. S/D


Set in I'll be seeing you

Diane must have run up and down the steps of Cheers about a dozen times before stopping to grab the handle for what might be the final time in her life. She knew she might be making the biggest mistake of her life, but she also knew that she would hate herself for not trying this last time. Her face still stung from Sam's slaps, the only time in her life she had ever been hit. That alone had been unforgettable, but he had said some horrible things, things he could never take back. Still if she didn't go back and see if she could make things right somehow then she knew that she would never see Sam Malone again, and she didn't know if she could live with herself if she didn't give it one last shot.

Was this worth fighting for anyway? Was Sam worth her sacrificing her self-respect and dignity just to win back a few nights of passion and some arguments? There was more to them than that certainly. Oh there was the passion. No one drove her wild the way he did. She knew that the first time she laid eyes on him and she had to come up with a flimsy excuse over the phone to one of his many dates. And there were the arguments. They could argue like ever met. But some could say that was part of their charm. That was part of their passion . Without the fighting there would be no making up, and where's the fun in that? Diane sighed as she realized there would be a hell of a lot of making up to do this time.

What was Sam thinking? Why couldn't he be the one coming after her? She'd certainly put her life on hold just to make their relationship work. God knows she was cut out for more than being a barmaid at a crummy bar. The tips alone weren't what were keeping her at Cheers, and it wasn't her coworkers. Maybe Coach. He was one of the sweetest people Diane had ever known and she loved him dearly. But Carla did everything in her power to make her life miserable and she didn't care who knew it. So why did she put up with this? The same reason she did most of the things she did- for love. And she loved Sam, and that is why she would be the one walking back.

Diane's hand was shaking and her facial tic was back in full motion as she finally pulled open the door to the establishment she called home for the past several years. It was like nothing had changed, but in reality everything had. She didn't' know what, exactly, but a fine line had been crossed from which neither she or Sam could ever come back from. The best they could do is to see if the magic was still there.

She looked around and didn't see him. Cautiously she approached the poolroom and found that it was empty. Knowing where she would find him, she slowly made her way to the door. Taking a deep breath, Diane stepped back and knocked three times on the wooden door.

"Come in," Sam called out as if he were waiting for her.

"How did you know it was me?" Diane asked, startled at the sight. Sam was holding on to a beer bottle, unopened but he was peeling away the label.

"I knew you'd come back. I just knew you would."

Diane looked at him and wanted to cry. Had she done this to him? Had she pushed him to the point where a recovering alchoholic wanted to drink? God how she hated herself at the moment.

"Give that to me," she took it away from him.

"I wasn't going to drink you know. I just wanted to remember. Or actually I wanted to forget," Sam said, still looking at the bottle.

"Sam… Look at us. I never meant for this to happen to you. Or to us. How did we wind up here?"

"You tell me. You're the one with the answers to everything." Sam looked at her and waited.

"I don't think this is about the painting. I know that what I did was wrong but I wanted to do something that I thought might make you proud. I can see now how very wrong I was. It's hard for me to say this but Sam I'm sorry."

"You're right Diane. It's not the painting. What's going on with us? I mean one minute we're at each other's throats and the next we've got our clothes off doing the horizontal. How long can we go on like that?"

"How long do you want it to keep going on Sam?" she asked him as seriously as she could, a little afraid of the answer.

"I don't know. All I know is that I like how I feel with you but I get so frustrated that I don't know how to deal with it sometimes."

"Hitting me's not the right way," Diane pointed out.

"Hey you started it."

"Let's not go into that."

Sam looked at her. "Okay. I'm sorry that I hit you. I would never want to hurt you even though I say it all the time. Believe it or not Diane I love you."

Diane stared at him. "What did you just say to me?"

"I apologized once. That's all you're going to get from me."

"No. After that. It sounded like you said you loved me."

Sam looked down. "I'll be darned. So I did. I do Diane. I may not always show it but you know how I feel about you. Maybe its time I told you so. I'm sorry it's taken me this long to tell you and that it came out this way. But you know you're the one for me."

And so Sam and Diane began again. It wasn't easy for them in the beginning, but they learned to trust each other. They still had their fights, but after what had happened with the fiasco with the painting Diane had learned to walk away rather than to stick around and let things escalate. They wouldn't' be Sam and Diane without the fights, after all, and what good are fights without the making up? Sam still drove her crazy but after coming so close to losing him, she realized that in the end, she learned that they did love each other and that was what really mattered after all.

Fin


End file.
